Croquet in the Cold

One of Brice's good friends is in town with his wife. We all went to a nearby field today to play some croquet.

The boys played pretty consistently.

It was Becca's first time to play.

Cole had a lot of fun and played pretty well too!

However, I made my dad proud and dominated the course.

At least the first 3/4s of the course! Then I started slipping, to my husband's delight!

And did I mention it was freezing?? I think that made it more fun though. You know that brisk energy you get when the weather is chilly? We were all feeling it!


Brice ended up winning - I came in 3rd. I gave him props though - no bitterness. We do have a rematch scheduled for Friday though!

Preview

I will have many pictures to show of Thanksgiving and Christmas, but thought I'd go ahead and give you a preview. Here are the Jacksons Christmas morning:

Christmas #1.5

You'll recall from below that we celebrated Christmas with my parents on the 17th, before they left town on vacation. A week later I received a call from my mother as I'm packing to leave for my Christmas trip to St. Louis. She had awakened remembering that she bought a gift for us but forgot to give it to us - and had no idea where it was! Now, I will not mock her for this, for I have been there before and know I will be there again! We crossed our fingers hoping she had delivered it to St. Louis over Thanksgiving and forgotten.

Christmas day came and many presents were opened, however, none of mine were from mom and dad. I gave her the news over the phone. Though disappointed, we both knew it would turn up eventually.

It didn't take long! She called me the next day to say that she had found it in a random drawer! A while back, I was coming over to visit one day and she needed to stash it so I didn't see it. Well, she stashed it well!

So what is this marvelous delayed gift? Ta da!!

Isn't it all cute and red! Totally worth the wait! Thanks, Mom and Dad!!

Christmas #2 - Brice's Parents

Our second Christmas was on the 20th with Brice's parents. We enjoyed another Mexican meal at Pablo's before heading back to our house for gifting.

Brice got another nifty t-shirt - how many of you know this great reference?

Gratefully, I got soft and beautiful scarves and gloves, just in time for my trip up north!!

Cole was ecstatic with a new Wii game and a couple new movies. He also got a cute little device that makes various gaseous noises with a touch of a button. Definitely a top gift of the day for him!

Sweet Paige didn't forget Macie either. She loves her ball with feathers!

About as much as she loved the wrapping paper and ribbons!

A big thanks to the Jacksons for their amazing generosity! Another fun Christmas evening!

Christmas #1 - Anna's Parents

Last night we celebrated our first Christmas of the season. This was the Cheely family Christmas. We (the Jacksons) dressed in our Christmas PJs as though it was really Christmas morning. After a dinner of taco soup and banana pudding, we got to opening presents!

Mom is great about getting Brice some clever t-shirt every year. This year's says:

BRICE

The Man

The Myth

The Legend

She also helped Cole pick out his presents for us this year. He LOVED her suggestion and put his own money into it. He was very proud! We both got t-shirts that read:

Cole wasn't consumed with opening his own gifts which was so nice to see! He was very interested in what everybody else got and made sure we went all the way around the circle before he opened another present. Selflessness or OCD?

Memom and Pop's hit gift:

Brice likes to wear scrubs when he massages. Mom made a note of that and gave him a pair in black - his favorite color. Good job, Mom!

Memom and Pop's other great gift was a set of air guns that shoot out little plastic balls. The boys had quite a battle. Not really sure who had more fun!

Yes, the parents got gifts too! Besides Mom's yearly puzzle, she also got a new game: Bananagrams. Lots of fun. Comes in a little banana-shaped zipper pouch.

Dad is always hard to shop for. Last year we took to the idea of getting him something practical that we know he'll use. So we got him a package of toilet paper. He loved it! So this year: light bulbs!

Then I decided to get him something a little bit sentimental. I made a collage poster through Snapfish and used only pictures of him and the grandkids. Mom went bananas over it!

I think he liked it too.

Not to be left out, even Macie got in on the action. She, of course, loved the wrapping paper and the boxes!
It was such a fun evening. My friend, Stephanie, is staying with us a few days so she joined in the fun as well. She was also the designated photographer - thanks, Steph! And thanks, Mom and Dad - it was a great Christmas!

Last One Married

The last of my Troy friends got married a couple weeks ago. Some of you may know Erb - most people do. He's been a good friend for over 10 years and it's great to see him so happy with the girl of his dreams, Ashley.

The wedding was beautiful! Greenery and white petals lined the aisle of the church. Sesame and I sang "In My Life" from the balcony. She's great to sing with!

Another fun part of the day was seeing so many familiar faces that I haven't seen in years. And of course, my girls!

Congratulations, Scott and Ashley! Blessings and happiness on you both!

Christmas Songs

In honor of my sister's recent post about favorite Christmas songs, I'm requesting that you all leave a comment stating your LEAST favorite song of the holiday season. You know, those annoying songs that the radio plays over and over and you just can't stand!

Here are a few of mine:

So This is Christmas - John Lennon
The Little Drummer Boy - Bing Crosby & David Bowie
Wonderful Christmas Time - Paul McCartney
Please Come Home for Christmas - Aaron Neville or the Eagles

And has anybody ever noticed that when Karen Carpenter sings "Merry Christmas, Darling," she says:

"I've just one wish on this Christmas Eve. I wish I were with you."

Shouldn't it be "I wish I was with you"? Grammatically, isn't it "I was" and "we were"?
Just one of those things I've always noticed and wanted to clarify with the world. :-)

Hello, ebay!

I've been a long time buyer on ebay. I hate shopping so online purchasing is my method of choice. And I like a good deal, so ebay/half.com and Amazon are a few of my favorite places to look. I've never sold any items though . . . . . until today!

Brice pulled out some DVDs and video games and asked if I would list them on ebay. I agreed to do it but didn't make it a priority - knowing it would probably be a long process since I've never done it before. He moved the discs into the den on the coffee table so I've been staring at them for a couple days now. Tonight while he was at class, I took pictures, created sales pages, and listed my items on ebay!

The coolest part - I sold a Wii game within 5 minutes! Does that mean I underpriced it?

Now, maybe Brice should put my wedding dress on the coffee table so I'll list that on craigslist!

My Sister's Thanksgiving

My sweet parents drove 8 hours to surprise my sister for Thanksgiving. I predicted she would burst into tears and insisted they go to the door with a camera. Her reaction?


Dad hasn't seen the kids in over a year and won't be able to visit for quite some time, so they took advantage of the holiday and got some quality time with the grandkids.

I love this photo:

Mom was just there in October so when she went in to get Lily up from her nap, Lily looked up and said, "Memom - you're back." So fun! Wish I could've been there.

I've got dibs on Christmas!

Week in Review

I don't have any fun pictures, but thought I'd touch base before the holiday week.

Brice and I got to have a fun date night last Wednesday. We had a coupon and gift certificate to The Melting Pot - and you know we love that place! We tried the Bananas Foster Chocolate for dessert. I was a bit skeptical, not being a big white chocolate fan, but it was heavenly! It came with a big hunk of brown sugar to melt into the chocolate, a dash of cinnamon, and bananas, of course. Wow. Yeah, just wow. Then we walked over to the movie theater and saw the new Bond movie. It was good.

I had told my boss about our big night and that Cole was spending the night with my parents. He suggested I take Thursday off to sleep in and chill. Okay!! So I followed the boss' instructions and slept in! And it gets better - he didn't want me to come in Friday to make up for it. So I've had a really long weekend!

Cole started basketball Thursday evening. One of his teammates is the son of Brice's and my high school choir director. When Cole saw him, he recognized him as the boy who takes piano lessons in the time slot right before Cole! Who knew?

Brice had class all weekend and Cole was away so I had a lot of time to myself. I wrapped Christmas presents, blew the driveway, slept, ran a few errands, slept - good times!

Cole is out of school all this week so he will be coming to work with me for Monday and Tuesday. Brice has "professional development" those two days. Then we head out of town on Wednesday for a Jackson Family Thanksgiving in Callaway Gardens! I've never been and I hear it's beautiful! I'll post pictures next week. I wonder if we'll go around the table and tell what we're thankful for?

Have a great Thanksgiving, everyone! And remember to be thankful for the many blessings in your life!

Christmas in November?

Growing up around the Cheely house, the Christmas season started in December. Well, at least not until after Thanksgiving. Once we kids started going to college, Mom used the Thanksgiving holiday weekend, when we were home, to have free labor in decorating the house. The same applied for the Christmas holidays - we would take down the decorations the day after Christmas, and sometimes even Christmas afternoon, before we all headed out.

I've stuck to that timing myself for several years, but I always hate to take down that beautiful tree after 3 weeks. And I'm sure you've noticed that our retail industry thinks October 15th is the beginning of the Christmas season.

So based on our schedule and excitement for Christmas, we decorated this weekend!!

Cole was SO excited and ready to help. First came the tree and he was such a great helper!

It was quite a process - but we finally got it up.

Next came the adult only part - the lights! Thankfully, Brice and I find this process easy - no arguing! Oh, but Cole always get to put on the star!!

And after a Sunday afternoon of ornamenting, with some help from our friend, Mac, this is the final product:

That's our Veggie Tales nativity sitting under the tree.

A concern of ours was the reaction Macie would have to the tree. This is her first Christmas and we didn't know how she would take to the decor. The process itself was a bit overwhelming for her. All the boxes and paper were quite the playground. The tree is a novelty for her. She likes to lay under it, paw at low branches, and occasionally swat at an ornament. I left a couple of unbreakables low enough for her to play with.

We had a great time getting the house ready and now we can enjoy the festiveness a bit longer than usual!

Merry Christmas, everyone!!

Any reason to have fun!

We wanted to do something fun and special with Cole, no particular reason. So we used the end of baseball season as an excuse to celebrate with a favorite activity of Cole's - a scavenger hunt!

To make it grand and special, we designed a list of things that can be found in the mall. Brice even went days before and took photos of various logos and words for him to find. So Monday afternoon, Brice and I met at the school to pick Cole up together a bit earlier than usual. He was surprised and curious and then excited once we told him what we were doing. He studied the list of items on the way to the mall and arrived ready to go!



We set off looking for things like a yellow candle, a green t-shirt, a blue hat, a silver bracelet, a gold watch, a light saber, a chocolate chip cookie (which we purchased), baby socks and he could only find one item per store. He found an item pretty immediately - purple shoes.


The next item he found was an air hockey table. Of course, we had to pause the hunt for a few games. We each played each other. Wanna guess who the champion was? She's really good.


We walked around for over an hour, both levels. We didn't help him much. Occasionally we'd stop and say that we could see one of the pictures from where we were standing and he'd find it. The last thing found was a postage stamp.

He had a great time and we had fun watching him. Hanging out with my family is just my favorite thing to do! And I love that Cole gets into our goofiness and has fun with our silly selves!

Halloween in Huntsville

I spent the last weekend of October with my dear friend, Penny, in Huntsville. We took her oldest, Sam, to a local fall festival where he played a few games, loved sliding down the huge inflatable slide, and visited the petting farm.

Penny and I stayed home that evening to hand out candy while her husband, Ron, took little Thomas the Train out trick-or-treating. I had talked Penny into buying more candy, but we only got two visitors!! Their house is a bit isolated from the main part of the neighborhood.

Saturday was a fun day of girl time. Ron was a sweetheart and kept the boys for several hours so that Penny and I could do some shopping, get pedicures . . .

and have a first for me - eyebrow waxing! Yep, never done it and figured it was a good time, having moral support and all.

Get ready . .

Ow!

I'm happy with the result though. They're so small now!

The other highlight of the weekend was hanging out with this little guy:

Luke is five months old and absolutely adorable. All smiles, dimples, and little rolls.

It was a great weekend to get away and chill with a girlfriend. Thanks for having me, Penny!!

Halloween '08

Cole traditionally goes trick-or-treating with two buddies he's had since kindergarten. I was leaving town for the weekend, so Brice accompanied the kids, along with the other dads, as they roamed a nearby neighborhood for mounds of candy. Here's our little Ninja. Scary!

United

The first two concerts I remember going to, and I can't remember which was first, were for Michael W. Smith at the Oak Mt. Amphitheater and Steven Curtis Chapman at Huntsville's Von Braun Civic Center. Ah, the 90's. I grew up listening to these guys' music - them and Amy Grant! My brother and sister had their 80's stuff and I knew it all! How fun that my husband did too! We will occasionally queue up an old Smitty song on the iPod and laugh at the fake accent and cheesy music.

Well, have you heard about this:

I mean, can you believe it? Is it really happening? It's like a dream come true! The two gurus of Christian music on stage together?? Ok, I dramatize, but it does look like a good concert, eh? Well, it was! I surprised Brice with tickets last night and off we went.

Here we are! We're sitting on the back row, literally, in the top of the theater. Way high. But way fun.

The concert opened with both guys on stage together leading us all in singing Blessed be Your Name and How Great is Our God. Michael was on the keyboard and Steven on the guitar. Then Michael left and Steven did his set. He was great, of course. He referred to having grown up listening to Michael's music. That got a good laugh. He talked a good bit about their family and how they are doing. He said he wanted to be honest and not act like they're not hurting. Very moving, especially when he sang Cinderella. His whole family was there, including his oldest daughter with her new husband of two weeks. He sang stuff off the latest album, mostly, and a couple from the previous one. The last song featured a guest drummer, his son Will.

Michael came back out and sang with him a little. Then came the best part. Michael started singing The Great Adventure. So Steven retaliated with Go West, Young Man. This continued back and forth with snippets of various oldies like For the Sake of the Call and Place in this World. They ended the 1st half of the show with Steven singing I Will Be Here.

The 2nd half of the show started with both guys singing Friends, yes, you read correctly. Then Michael had the stage and led us all in one of the most beautiful worship services I've experienced. Most of his music now falls into the praise & worship category and he worships with every fiber of his body. However, at one point Michael is talking to us about how hard it is to pick which songs to sing knowing people out there want to hear their old favorite. At that moment, a young guy yelled out "Free Bird!" It was great -Michael loved it! There was also a touching song written for one of the victims in Columbine. Also, Michael's son, Tyler, played keyboard the whole time. Steven came back out and we ended back with How Great is our God.

It was such a good night and fun to see two favorites of yore. I've included a little video clip of the end of Friends. Brice chimes in at one point (poorly). You'll hear a pause at the end, "A lifetime's not too long . . ." where Michael points at Steven queuing him to sing the last line. Steven then says, "You sure? This is a good moment."

I highly recommend you attend if they are coming to your town this fall!